derosa8Haley11, you make some good points. But there are problems that arise with a Federal amendment. I can think of 3 examples off the top of my head that would be be ILLEGAL if there were to be a new marriage amendment.
1. An adoption agency gives special consideration to married couples, but does not acknowledge same sex couples as being married.
2. A private hospital gives special visitation rights to spouses of married couples but it does not acknowledge same sex couples as being married.
3. A state public school includes marriage education in its curriculum and chooses to teach that only heterosexual marriages are legitimate.
I would argue that 1, 2, and 3 should all be legal; institutions have a choice of what they want to recognize as marriage. By instituting a Federal law mandating same sex marriage acceptance across the states, we would open up the door to more govt intrusion in the peoples’ private decisions.
Also, if the constitution means anything, it would take a Federal Amendment (3/4 of states voting yes) to make same sex marriage the law of the land, since there is nothing in the Constitution that says the legislature can tell the states what they have to do about marriage.
As far as the immigration visas and such, you do bring up a great point. However, I think the problem is government getting involved and sanctioning marriages in the first place. Idk how immigration would work on a completely free market, but I think it might alleviate those problems better than govt decree.